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Winter Wrap Up: Animal Team


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A violet mare came calmly but swiftly toward the group as they began to break up and began panting, "S..sorry I'm late, t..the train..running behind," she said as her ice blue eyes looked around and she froze as she spotted Rarity, it was her, THE Rarity. She took a breath, "U..um, Rarity, yes?" she asked as she slowly went forward, "H..Hi, I'm..I'm Moonlite Frost, a Unicorn from Canterlot, anyway.." she said seeing she was begining to ramble, "A..are you t..the leader o..of the animal team?" she asked as she looked at the nests, "Oh your weaving nests, I'm ok at weaving, kind of been practicing for a while now"

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"Now, everyone get a bell, or get a basket of food. We have a lot of animals to take care of today!"

After attentively observing Fluttershy's example and further instruction, Brooke felt she was ready to get the ball rolling. She took her bell over to a den and gave it a little ring.

"It's time to wake up now. Spring's here."

She peered into the den, wondering what sort of creature might crawl out of the darkness. Soon enough, a couple of snakes emerged from the den and gave a hearty yawn. Brooke took a slight step back out of instinct, but quickly regained composure. "Uh, good mourning. You must have a considerable appetite, so in a moment someone should supply you with an ideal source of nourishment." The snakes seemed baffled by her words so she quickly corrected herself. "Er... don't worry, we'll get you some food in no time."

The snakes thankfully seemed to understand her that time around as they acted quite excited by that notion. Not longer after, she heard a stallion ask a question regarding the baskets.

"So I just give some of this to the animals as they come out?"

The deer approached the fiery maned unicorn and nodded. "Yes, I believe so." She pointed to the newly woken skunks before motioning her hooves towards the snakes. "And we've got a various assortment of hungry animals already. After tending to those, would you like to provide sustenance as I awaken them?"

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He hadn't been living in Ponyville long enough to experience a Winter Wrap-Up the first time he'd been around, but from everything the grey stallion had heard, it was an experience that needed to be…well. Experienced.

Winters in Manehatten had always been wrapped up with a combination of magic and good-old-fashioned pony work - mostly magic. Being decidedly lacking in a horn, Inkbrand had never really participated as a young colt, though he had gone to watch the wrapping-up with his parents a few times. Seeing the snow seared away by a combination of heat spells - and most importantly, playing in whatever leftover puddles he could get his hooves in before his parents swooped down on him like bats - had always been fun. Maybe because he had been young and hadn't had to do any actual work?

Whatever the case, Inkbrand hummed a little under his breath as he trotted down the mostly empty streets of Ponyville, not at all rushed from the lateness of the day. From his short time in Ponyville, he had discovered how the town's traditional, non-magical wrap-up procedures were near infamous throughout Equestria, though Ponyville residents remained quite proud of the fact. Color him intrigued, but seeing how he had missed out the first time around, Inkbrand couldn't help be a little curious. He was only going to be in Ponyville for a little while - why not live it up.

Plus, nearly all of Ponyville was out and about, shoveling snow and whatever else they did. He was bored, and therefor, more amiable to being helpful.

'Round the corner, over the bridge, up the hill - oh, there it is.'

Inkbrand paused to stare at the homely looking house sitting at the crest of the hill, before continuing on his way, hearing the telltale sounds of ponies chatting and laughing and…and Ponyvilleness. If he remembered correctly, the teams in this division of Wrap-Up were in charge of the hibernating animals, making them comfortable after a long night's sleep. Inkbrand hadn't bothered with the Weather Team - again, what with the lack of certain appendages - which had left him between animals and seeds. Animals had eventually won out. With having to till the ground through snow and ice, Inkbrand had figured more stallions would flock to Applejack's team, while cute cuddly rabbits and squirrels would have probably drawn more mares.

Strategizing. It was all about the strategy.

The grey Earth Pony arrived in time to catch the telltale end of the instructions from a vaguely familiar yellow and pink Pegasus, listening with one raised eyebrow. Well hay, that sounded simple enough. Without further preamble, Inkbrand grabbed a bell from the pile and trotted over to where the same Pegasus - Fluttershy, that was her name. One of the Elements, wasn't she? - was doing further explanation. It was almost enough to make Inkbrand roll his eyes. Seriously. How hard could it be to ring a bell and wake up some animals?

Spying a den a little bit away, Inkbrand trot over and unceremoniously plopped himself down onto the ground, giving the bell held in his mouth a little shake. "Rise and shine, you little blighters," the grey stallion sing-songed in a somewhat exaggerated tone of voice, though his eyebrows furrowed downward as no telltale sign of rustling animals poked their heads out of the den. "Oi, wake up," he called out, edging forward in an attempt to peer into the small cave, "beauty rest is over. Hey!" Inkbrand withdrew his head with a huff, glancing around the area to spot a redheaded deer and a fiery-maned stallion nearby, apparently having been successful in waking up some snakes.

Hmm. Maybe the little creatures wouldn't come out unless there was some food waiting for them? Lazy bums. Inkbrand cast his glance around, before spotting a pale yellow Pegasus with an orange mane and tail standing near a table with some muffins, seeming to have just finished eating. "Hey babe, grab some food and get over here, will 'ya?" the grey Earth Pony called out as if the two were old friends, though he was mostly still aggrieved that the animals were being stubborn and not doing what he wanted.

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Pyro was awaiting a response from the pegasus, but a doe beat her to it, gesturing to a group of skunks then at some snakes. The doe was talking very formally for some reason, but he understood well enough. Growing up in Canterlot required at least some understanding of formal speech. He didn't like using formal speech, though he probably still could. He preferred to be more familiar with those he met.

Anyways, back to the matter at hoof. He figured he might as well work with this doe. He trotted over to the skunks first and shook some food off the basket for them to eat. This would be a lot easier if he could just levitate the food over, but the rules say no magic, so he wasn't going to use magic. With the skunks taken care of, he moved over to the snakes and repeated the process, giving them some food they would want to eat before returning to the doe.

"Alright, let's get to it then. Name's Pyro Blaze, by the way." Pyro said, smiling at the doe as he adjusted his sunglasses to better cover up his red eyes. He never knew if someone would have an adverse reaction to his eye color, so he felt it best to hide them and avoid the reaction altogether. He extended a hoof in greeting to the doe as he stood there.

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One by one, Calamity Mane observed the rest of her team heading off to their desired stations. And one by one, she witnessed each bucket of food taken by those intending to feed the awakening animals. As typical of Winter Wrap Up, there was always one bucket left alone by everypony else; the one filled to the brim with fish. For whoever carried the fish had one of the most unenviable tasks of all within the Animal Team, which entailed the proper feeding of all the bears that lived around Ponyville.

Everypony knows how fearsome bears could be, along with their legendary grumpiness as well. Any with a sane mind found something else to do other than bear waking and feeding, hoping instead for somepony else to volunteer for the frightful. Calamity Mane was no stranger to danger, so on most occasions, she ended up partaking in this challenge. In her view, the hard part wasn’t so much facing the bulking ursine mammals as it was finding a willing assistant for this task.

It looked like Mrs. Mane would have to acquire an assistant from the pool of ponies who stayed behind to work on the nests. Without providing any forewarning, the veteran cowmare announced her presence by dropping the fish bucket right on the work table (no nests were damaged by this process); “Alright y’all, I need one of you buckaroos to help me out with the bears.” The authoritative tone in Calamity’s voice left no room for her request to go unfulfilled; one of the nest-builders WILL drop what they’re doing for the good of Winter Wrap Up.

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As Fluttershy indulged him by rubbing his belly, Chrome's tail wagged furiously as his mouth open and tongue hanging out, clearly enjoying every second of the belly rub. Once Fluttershy stopped it was right to business. Trekker nodded at Fluttershy's words. If needed Chrome and Trekker could switch off jobs for other animals but still. "That sounds fine Fluttershy. I'll head off to the outer caves first and wake up some critters there." Trekker agreed with Fluttershy, Chrome looked up as Fluttershy stopped giving a sad look, but Trekker was going to have none of that. "Come on Chrome, you know why we are here. You can get belly rubs anytime, but right now we need to wrap up winter..." Trekker lightly chided her furry friend. "Go and grab a bell and we can get started." Chrome quickly got up and yiped while he ran over to where the bells were and grabbed one with his mouth.

Trekker cantered over to the food, and hearing what Calamity Mane said it was pretty clear what she had to do... Wake up the bats, who usually were in caves just as the bears were. Trekker grabbed the basket with the fruits and the other with the jars of insects for the bats to munch on and set off, hopefully before Calamity found a partner to aid her in her quest of waking up the bears.

So off she went to the caves. On her way she closed one eye. This was a trick she learned as a filly trying to sneak off at night. By the time she entered the cave she would be able to see in the dark cave. She knew this would be risky, but making sure the bats were out and tended to before the bear was something she had to try and do before Calamity made her way to the cave.

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"Well allow me to thank you on Ponyville's behalf. We really do appreciate all of the outside support we are lucky enough to receive, And that's just the right spirit! Presteza, darling!" she added with excitement. "We start just by getting to work as Valen has," she said, nodding toward the colt. "Our materials have been gatered for us in advance, though at some point we might have need to find some more. There's nothing to do but get straight to work designing our nests right away. "

Initially the mare tilted her head at the mention of Valen, but then Rarity gave the hint as to who she was speaking of; a little orange colt at her side. He seemed to be currently involved in the nest weaving but Pressy figured he might not be too busy to introduce himself to a new friend. With a smile, Presteza began to get to work weaving the materials into a smallish nest,"Nice ta meetcha, Valen. How did you meet Rarity?" It seemed the freckled mare was as quick when it came to weaving as she was with a brush, something she'd achieved through practice. Looking To Rarity she presented her small nest to her friend,"Is this about the right size by the way?"

"Presteza, could I ask ya for some advice? I just got turned down by Rarity for a dinner date. Ya got any tips for me on how ta ask a babe out? Seems like me approach is a bit off, yur a cute babe, if ya don't mind me sayin' so, what are mares lookin' for in a guy?"

Mojo was still his usual self, even as he worked on his weaving of the nests he still kept his determined 'mares' stallion' mentality of his. The mare smiled proudly at his compliment about her being cute. She always preferred as being referred to as either 'hot' or 'cool' rather than cute, but a compliment was a compliment nonetheless. Brushing a bit of her distinctive fringe out of the way of her eyes she smiled at The hippie brony,"Thanks, Mojo... I have been tryin' ta take better care o' myself lately... I think Rarity might be rubbin' off on me." she said withh a wink to her friend. The stallion's query itself gave her a pause however. When she pictured her ideal somepony she'd always thought she'd wind up with someone very different than the pony she was currently... not that she was complaining.

"Well, Mojo. I originally always had a thing fer ponies were as rough n' tumble as I could be... but really that's sorta just a matter o' preference." said the mare as she began work on another nest, this one slightly larger than the last. "Although, I'd think the essentials fer me would be... A good heart, A clever mind and a quick wit... also 'e can't be scared ta do a LOT o' travelin'!"

While she continued her work as quickly as normally, producing quite a few nests, the freckled mare was soon pulled from her concentration in her work by the sound of an authoritative voice. Upon looking behind her she noticed a mare with messy brownish mane and a very snazzy hat!

“Alright y’all, I need one of you buckaroos to help me out with the bears.”

Waking up bears sounded like a dangerous work... and just the kind of work Presteza would love to help out with! The only issue was that she still wanted to help out with the nest making, although she had to admit their team already seemed to have quite a few members already and they seemed to be making good time. Looking to Rarity she asked, "I'm gonna take a few minutes ta help out the bear wakin' team with the bears, okay? Ya guys seem ta be good on materials fer now... but my li'l friend inyer mane'll be happy ta gather some more stuff fer ya!" From above Rarity's head there was a small squeak, showing that the fruit bat currently nestled in her mane was happy to help out.

"I'll help ya out there, Pahdnah!" Said the cheerful sounding pony, trying to playfully imitate Miss Mane's accent but still not being able to hide her own Non-rhotic pattern of speech. "Let's go give those bears a wake up call! By the way I love that hat!" she said as she trotted towards the cave alongside the elder mare.

Something made her stop before she got there, or more accurately somepony made her stop. Apparently a new stallion had come to help out. He was an interesting looking guy, with his dogtags, chains and bandana on his head. On his body he had several ornate looking tattoos that looked worthy of being deemed something a pony would put his all into. Honestly he seemed like the kind of interesting character that Presteza would have loved to paint, but his conduct left a LOT to be desired as he seemed to be slight obnoxious in his attempts to wake up the animals he'd chosen.

"Rise and shine, you little blighters,"

"Oi, wake up, beauty rest is over. Hey!"

"Hey babe, grab some food and get over here, will 'ya?"

... Now that last part was what pushed, Presteza's buttons. Inkbrand may have been annoyed by the animals not waking up like he wanted, but that was no excuse to disrespect her friend like that. He'd called out to her and asked her to bring him food like she was a some kind of waitress and not the leader of the team that she was.

"Um ... gimme a sec, Ma'am." she said to mane before approaching the dark grey stallion. Well she was pretty peeved right now, she was still determined to not lose her temper for the time being, time would tell whether or not temper's flared or not... it wasn't going to stop her from trying to get this pony to step in line though."Oi, Scuse me, mate." said the freckled mare, poking her hoof to his shoulder. "That pony over there is our team's leader! You don't ask her ta bring ya food. She tells you when ya can eat and how ta do what yer doin'!" The surprisingly strong young mare pushing the stallion back a bit as she went effectively nose to nose with him... before promptly backing off and turning to Fluttershy and yelling,"Oi, Fluttershy! this guy over 'ere needs some help! tell me if 'e give ya any trouble will ya?" she said in a pleasant , if very loud tone.

As she turned around she noticed that a certain blue unicorn had come into the picture,"ICY!" cheered the now elated young mare. Galloping over to her snow cone making friend she gave Ice storm a hug, "I was wonderin' when I'd get ta see ya again! How've ya been, mate? Me and that mare over there are gonna help wake up the bears... wanna help us out with that?" She asked, fully ready to bring her friend over when or if she said yes.

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Brooke watched as the red maned unicorn provided food to the skunks and snakes before returning to her.

"Alright, let's get to it then. Name's Pyro Blaze, by the way."

Brooke started towards the dens, but realized the unicorn had introduced himself. She turned around and grinned. "I'm Brooke." After shaking his hoof, she approached another den. "This is the initial time I was able to catch Ponyville's Winter Wrap Up. It's a fascinating tradition." She gently rung the bell and leaned into the den.

"Spring's arrived. Time to wake up."

Four chipmunks sleepily crawled from the den and yawned one after the other before rubbing their eyes. Brooke pointed to Pyro. "This pony over here will provi-...get you some food to eat."

While the chipmunks scampered over to Pyro, Brooke's ears tilted towards a voice as it sounded rather annoyed with something

"Oi, wake up, beauty rest is over. Hey!"

She glanced in the direction to find a grey stallion with a blue mane adorned with various accessories. He was struggling to wake the animals. After calling to a pegasus in a rather brash manner, he almost immediately received a stern talking to from a white maned unicorn with a cream colored coat. She wasn't expected a conflict, but it didn't seemed very serious at the time.

She turned her attention back to the task at hoof and approached another den. As she waited for Pyro to tend to the chipmunks, her eyes darted around as she searched her thoughts for a topic to discuss. After a few glances his way, an idea hit and a small grin appeared on her face.

"I'm assuming you like fire. So how does it apply to your talent?"

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Pyro nodded as the doe introduced herself as Brooke, shaking his hoof before moving to the next den. She was still speaking pretty formally, but he didn't mind. It wasn't hard to decipher her meaning. Apparently this was her first time doing Winter Wrap Up in Ponyville too. He nodded in agreement with Brooke's assessment of the tradition. It was quite interesting. The whole 'no magic' thing really only affected the unicorns. It still allowed the pegusi to fly. That made sense though, since you either needed magic or fliers to manipulate the clouds.

"It's my first time doing this here too. Kinda fun, in a way." Pyro said as Brooke woke up some more animals, telling them that he would give them food. He sighed as a voice that sounded quite annoyed broke through to him. He looked over to the stallion that was trying to order another pony to bring him food. Thankfully, Pressy stepped in to give the stallion what he deserved. Some of it at least. Either way, Pressy seemed to have it under control. If anything happened between the stallion and her, he would step in on her side. For now though, there were animals to feed. He walked over to the chipmunks and passed out some nuts to all of them. He was pretty sure that's what chipmunks liked to eat. With them taken care of, he trotted over to Brooke, who was smiling as she asked how his love of fire applied to his talent.

"Well, I have an affinity for fire magic, and controlling it is pretty much my talent. I like to use my fire as pyrotechnics for concerts and such, as a side job when I've got free time after school or over the weekend." Pyro said, smiling at the doe. "What is it that you do for a living?"

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Admittedly, he had gotten kind of sidetracked, staring at the mare's creamy smooth coat as she stood by the muffin table. There was just something about a mare and her flanks…made even better when said mare would flounce away in a huff. Now, that was a sight Inkbrand had been treated to many a time - though why mares seemed to like to flounce away from him, he had no idea, Inkbrand though with a sharp smirk - and one that was rewarding in the midst of a failure.

But still, even wrapped up in his thoughts as he was, it wasn't exactly hard to miss the mare screaming into his face.

Not exactly screaming, but for all of her sudden indignation, she may as well have been. Inkbrand was vaguely aware of the dumfounded look that must have been plastered over his face, slack-jawed and confused, and probably compounded by the bell now loosely lolling out of his mouth. The entire scene was almost enough to make him go cross-eyed, but as confused as he was, the obnoxious mare's words did not fail to pass him by, causing an increasingly strong glower to grow over his face at her tirade.

What was she even going on about? He hadn't even been speaking to Fluttershy, he'd been yelling over at the orange-maned mare by the muffin table - yet here she was lecturing him like a mother mare hovering over her foal, not even giving the yellow Pegasus a chance to defend herself if she wanted. The shove was surprisingly strong, but failed to uproot him given his seated position, and only served to increase his ire as the grey stallions tumbled to his hooves, ears falling back onto his head. First a lecture, then a physical body check!

And to top it all off, the mare abruptly whirled around and flounced away as if she couldn't even be bothered to listen to a response.

Buck! And ponies called him rude! The glare was in full force on his face as Inkbrand strode forward, natural swagger turned just a little sharper, more purposeful.

"Well that must have been the infamous Ponyville politeness I've heard so much about," Inkbrand commented snidely as he stalked directly up and in the cream colored unicorns's path. Hay, if she was going to get straight up in his face, he could return the favor. "So kindly. Maybe," the grey Earth Pony continued in a mockingly pleasant voice, "you wouldn't mind getting off your high horse long enough to explain what in Equestria you were even talking about?" Inkbrand threw his head in the vague direction of the pale yellow Pegasus with the orange mane by the table, though he kept his sharp golden eyes fixed firmly on the mare in front of him. "I was asking her there to bring me a basket of food for the animals, so unless her and Miss FS over there switched roles this year, she's another volunteer like the rest of us. 'Ya know, bells and food, partnering up, waking up the creatures from winter sleep. Any of this ringing a bell over the sound of your self-righteouness?"

Inkbrand didn't remove himself from the path of the mare, but as much as he would have liked to plaster himself straight on her side to try and get her uncomfortable, the grey stallion was more than careful to keep a good distance. After all, there were plenty of other ponies around that were sure to come running to the rescue of the Innocent Delicate Mare being bullied by the Big Bad Stallion, never mind how rude she had been in the first place. The same way Inkbrand was used to being judged by those social elitists in Canterlot and Manehatten, upturned noses at his tattoos and chains.

It was comforting in a strange way, Inkbrand mulled silently, to know that Ponyville wasn't a shining utopia of goodwill and neighborly cheer. Its dirt was just bettered disguised than the rest of Equestria. Made him feel right at home.

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Apple Susie glanced back at the crowd that was previously surrounding Fluttershy and noticed that they were starting to disperse to go help out the animals, she nearly jumped out of her horse shoes when some random pony forcefully placed herself at the nesting table in order to receive a recruit but was quickly responded to. Apple Susie was starting to get impatient and quickly trotted off in the direction of the ponies going to wake up the other critters, she knew it was partially rude to leave a pony in mid-conversation and she knew her mother would scold her if she saw her now but she wasn't all in the mood to wait. Once she arrived to Fluttershy's group she glanced around and noticed a tree with a what it seemed to be little den at the bottom of it she trotted over and poked her head inside. She came back out and noticed that there wasn't a bell over the tree only a bell over the average dens that were in a row or column. Apple Susie didn't want the average dens animals to be the only ones that got woken up for Spring, that would be just plain mean! She galloped back over towards Fluttershy and glanced up at her, "Uhh 'scuse me Ms. Fluttershy but I was wonderin' could I go wake up those little critters over there under the trees cause I don't see any bells that way so could I? But I also need some help with the feedin' too". Apple Susie turned her head from left to right to see if anyone in the area was free but it looked as if everyone was busy. Apple Susie glanced back at Fluttershy for an answer since she seemed to know so much about the little critters.

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"I'll help ya out there, Pahdnah! Let's go give those bears a wake up call! By the way I love that hat!"

Note to those without natural country accents: they sounded amazingly cringe-worthy if they try imitating it. Especially when they lacked acting chops. Something about this young mare also struck Calamity Mane as extraordinarily caliver to an incredible degree. Without question, the unicorn lacked any respect for the sort of animals she’d be feeding. Calamity knew from personal experience that even the most mild-mannered cow could make a gigantic scene if provoked, and they weren’t even apex predators like bears were.

Still, the unicorn seemed eager enough to help, and Calamity Mane would take the help she could get. “Alright greenhorn, pick up that fish bucket and follow me,” instructed the no-nonsense rancher, cantering towards the underground locale the Ponyville bear population used for a winter home; “Now don’t you be kiddin’ around with these bears. You don’t want to see these critters when they’re ang-”

Noticing the lack of trodden snow sounds behind her, Mrs. Mane looked around to see that her flighty assistant conversing with a… ruffian, and that was putting it mildly. That stallion looked like he lacked any sort of respect whatsoever for his own body, like a horror story from the Big City brought to life. Calamity Mane wouldn’t stand for her assistant to be so easily distracted when she had a task she volunteered for. Naturally, the annoyed Rodeo Queen reached for her tied lasso, twirled it around to build momentum, and swung it in the unicorn mare’s direction. That greenhorn just better not drop her fish bucket when the rope captured her.....

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Fluttershy smiled at the enthusiastic responses of the volunteers. Maybe this Team Leader position might not be so bad... Well, she did have to cut back on her usual round of awakenings; as the Team Leader, she had to be visible and available, and she couldn't do that if her muzzle was in a burrow. There were a few creatures she felt she ought to handle on her own though, like old Mr. Badger. He never liked waking up and...

Her train of thought was interrupted by a fiery-maned stallion asking her about the food baskets. The stallion looked a bit out of breath, as though he had galloped here. "Um, yes, that's right," she answered. "Many of the animals use up their fat reserves during the hibernation, and wake up very hungry! Just remember that some of the baskets have, um..." How to put this delicately? "Food for the predatory animals... Some ponies have problems with that..."

After speaking to Fluttershy, the stallion, Pyro Blaze, she heard, paired up with the very formal doe she had spoken to earlier, whose name was Brooke. She saw that Trekker and Chrome had moved off in the direction of some of the larger caves and dens. Rarity's group had several ponies already working hard on weaving nests. Everything was going great! Then...

Fluttershy looked over in alarm at a grey earth pony when she heard him speak. Oh my, that wasn't the way to wake up the poor little animals! Well, she'd just have to go and talk to him. But, before she got to the stallion, he had moved off to the feeding an refreshment tables. He spoke to the mare who had dropped off the muffins, and was, well, a bit rude to her. Before she could speak up though, Presteza got in front of the stallion and pushed him! No no no!

This wasn't supposed to be like this! Fluttershy was frozen in her tracks. She knew she should stop this, but her extreme dislike of confrontations kept her frozen. Until, that is, the stallion replied to Presteza. There was obviously a huge misunderstanding here, and she had to make it right.

She zipped up to the side of the two ponies, and, in her firmest voice, said "That's enough!" Turning first to the artist, she looked Presteza in the eyes and said, "Presteza! I'm surprised at you! It doesn't matter if somepony is rude, being rude back and fighting won't fix anything!" She then turned to the unfamiliar stallion. In a calmer, but no less firm voice, she told him, "I apologize, sir. I am the Team Leader, and I assure you that we welcome anypony that wants to help." Looking in his eyes for emphasis, she then told him, "But there's no need to be so, well, brusque with the other volunteers. Now, I saw that you had trouble at that den you went to. If you want, I can show you how you can, um, improve your technique..."
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Ice Storm had followed Fluttershy over to where some of the dens were and watched as she awoke some of the animals and placed some of the food down to entice them to come out. "Okay, that doesn't seem too hard," she thought to herself. She was about to reach for a bell herself when she heard Presteza yelling and somepony else kinda loudly. She wasn't sure why initially, but for her to do something like that, she would have had to have a reason. She was going to ignore it until it looked like Pressy was heading her way, and was cut off by the earth stallion. "I don't think so..." Ice said to herself before starting to make her way over to the two of them.

Thankfully thought, Fluttershy seemed to pick up on what was going on as well and made her way over to the two of them. However, this only irritated Icy more as the mare stood up for the stallion after admitting that the stallion had been rude to somepony else. She heard her say that it didn't matter if somepony else was being rude, being rude back and fighting won't fix anything. "Except knocking them back down in their place and reminding them that they themselves didn't have a right to be rude to begin with..." she mumbled under her breath at the situation. What then infuriated Ice even more was that Fluttershy apologized to him, even after admitting that he had been rude. Of course, this stallion did seem to be that type of stallion. One to start something and then turn it around on everypony else. She had been a victim of that many of time in the academy to recognize what that looked like. At the very least, tough it seemed that Fluttershy continued saying there was no reason for him to be so brash in the first place. "At least there's that... I suppose that will have to do," Ice said softly to herself once again before moving up to Presteza. "Come on Pressy, let's go wake up that bear before we both say something we'll regret later," she told her making it know through her tone she was just as annoyed at the situation as everypony else was.

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"Well that must have been the infamous Ponyville politeness I've heard so much about,"

"So kindly. Maybe,you wouldn't mind getting off your high horse long enough to explain what in Equestria you were even talking about?"

"I was asking her there to bring me a basket of food for the animals, so unless her and Miss FS over there switched roles this year, she's another volunteer like the rest of us. 'Ya know, bells and food, partnering up, waking up the creatures from winter sleep. Any of this ringing a bell over the sound of your self-righteouness?"

The mare blinked a few times and then blushed a bit. Oh,colt... she'd made quite the mistake! While the stallion explained what he was doing she had to make sure she said she was sorry for the misunderstanding. She didn't want a newcomer to mistake her own personal blunder and occasional habit of flying off the handle because of her temper as being the typical attitude of the residents of Ponyville. His polite tone while delivering his own assertion was kind of irritating though as he obviously meant it to come off as condescending rather than trying to politely dispute the subject.

Ultimately, Presteza still didn't care for how this pony was conducting himself with the animals or with his fellow volunteers... but she still wasn't goign to try and make things difficult since a fight or somethign like that would probably disturb the animals. The mare took a deep breath,"Okay well, Mister I owe ya an apolo--"

"That's enough!" Turning first to the artist, she looked Presteza in the eyes and said, "Presteza! I'm surprised at you! It doesn't matter if somepony is rude, being rude back and fighting won't fix anything!" [/bg]

Suddenly Fluttershy had came into the scene. This wasn't all that surprising seeing as she was the head of the animal team and disputes between members would require her attention. What did surprise her was the saying that she was wrong for trying to correct Inkbrand's behavior. Presteza had no intention of starting a fight with the tattooed pony if she could help it and she was jsut about to say she was sorry, "Well, Fluttershy I was just about ta say sorry fer the mistake on my pa-AAAAAAAART!?" she trailed off in the middle of her sentence as a rope suddenly caught her by the midsection and she was being slowly pulled back. Looks like Miss Mane's patience had run out!

Before she was entirely pulled away she made one last attempt to fully apologize although seeing as Calamity's speed with the tugging was picking up she'd have to make it a quick one. WIth another deep breath the mare spoke up so both fluttershy and inkbrand could hear her over her undignified exit, "IwantedtasaysorryforthemistakebutIthinkheshouldtryandadressotherponiesmorenicely! anywaylookslikedutycallssobyefernow! ifIcanmakeituptoyasirtalktamelater." she said as she took ahold of her bucket of fish with her magic and pulled it along with her.

"Come on Pressy, let's go wake up that bear before we both say something we'll regret later,"

Seems Icy was actually joining her and miss mane on their job! This was gonna be great! Once she arrived via the elderly mare's chosen method of transportation for her she stood up and chuckled,"sorry fer takin' my sweet time, Miss Mare. I can get kinda carried away sometimes. This here is icy and she'll be helping us out!" Said the mare gesturing to the cyan unicorn at her side.

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In the time that Calamity’s unicorn assistant got herself into an argument, she also somehow managed to rope in another friend of hers to assist with bear feeding. Calamity Mane personally would have prefered that she didn’t, as that meant increasing the chances of a goof-up. But the rancher rolled with it; giving Icy a visual shakedown, a joke ended up coming into Calamity’s mind; “An ice-loving pony at Winter Wrap Up huh? Sounds like you’re at the wrong community event, missy.” For a brief moment, Calamity flashed a smile before going into business mode again.

“This is no time to be on the shoot, greenhorns,” Mrs. Mane instructed as the trio got closer to the outlying bear cave; “Keep your voices down, keep behind me, and when I start ringing the bell, send the bears our fish. Don’t do anything stupid, and this’ll be a piece of cake.” The imposing cliff housing the entrance to the cave loomed ever closer and closer. Calamity kept looking back at her two younger assistants to make sure they were keeping their noise levels down.

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Snickerdoodle had been looking around for another volunteer to partner up with, when a sudden flurry of activity unfolded in front of her. First, a brash tattooed stallion tried his hoof at waking the animals, rather unsuccessfully. Then he shouted something in her direction, "Hey babe, grab some food and get over here, will 'ya?" That made her lay her ears flat against her skull. Snickerdoodle did NOT like being called babe, and certainly not by a stranger. Before she could react, another mare got in the stallion's face and yelled at him, even shoved him in the shoulder! Of course Fluttershy (and all the other ponies in the vicinity) heard the commotion and came over to set things right. In the meantime, a small filly was looking for somepony to help her wake the critters.

Hmmm, choices choices. Brash stallion with a bit of an attitude, or small child? Snickerdoodle decided for the politer of the two, and turned towards Apple Susie. "I can help you wake the animals, little one. Did you want to ring the bell, while I carry the food basket?" She picked up a basket and turned towards the burrow under the tree where the filly was pointing. Flicking her tail in annoyance, she shot a look over her shoulder at the tattoed stallion as if to indicate, Sorry Dude, I'm Busy.

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Mojo received Presteza's wise words with a broad smile.

"Thanks, love," the Paint stallion said with a nod, "I'll keep that in mind."

As the hippie brony continued producing nests, he noticed his friend Presteza was walking away, being summoned to help out waking a bear. Mojo's mind flashed back to the last time he helped with the WWU Animal team and used his soothing singing voice to try and tame a rather angry bear. Prompted by this memory, the Paint earth stallion decided to take action.

"Can't let me pal go up against a mad bear alone! Angry bears can send out some real negative vibes! I already made a huge buncha nests, I'm gonna go check on her," Mojo said as he galloped over near the bear cave, stopping when he saw that Calamity Mane seemed to have taken command of the situation and was doing well, so far. Silently, Mojo moved up for a closer look.

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Apple Susie looked up towards a mare with a brown mane, a white coat and distinct two ear piercing, she seemed nice. Susie smiled and nodded her head at the question, "Well I guess i'll wake up the little critters with this here bell while you would give them their food for their hungry tummies?". Apple Susie smiled happily at the mare and slightly flicked her tail back and forth in excitement almost as if she had flies on her hindquarters. She trotted over towards the leftover pile of bells and grabbed a simple one in her mouth and trotted back over towards the helpful mare she placed the bell back down and glanced at the mare with a questioning look,"so off we go yeah?" She hopped up and down and spun in a circle once. Once she calmed down she turned back to look at the mystery mare" So umm...What exactly is your name miss?". She slightly blushed and giggled before sitting down and waiting for an answer.

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Well, that was almost worth the whole righteously indignant tirade and conceited attempt of a random unicorn to force her own world views on him.

Inkbrand couldn't help staring after the cream unicorn as a lasso, seemingly out of nowhere, suddenly whipped through the air to snake around her waist, ultimately resulting in the pony being dragged off to Luna knows where. The tattoo-clad stallion supposed that such a sight really wasn't all that uncommon in Ponyville, but still, the abruptness of it, not to mention the string of incomprehensible words rushing from the unicorn's mouth as she was pulled off, was so hilarious that Inkbrand couldn't help burst out laughing.

"What a bucking riot," he heaved when he finally managed to catch his breath, almost clutching his stomach with mirth, but had enough presence of mind to speak up just as brown mare was roping up her catch. "You can keep your half-baked apologies to yourself," Inkbrand called out cheerfully, laughter still tinging his voice, "but if you really mean it, come see me later, sweetheart!" The grey stallion winked and blew a kiss towards the mare, neither of which she could probably still see from her distance, but it didn't really matter as Inkbrand turned back to the yellow and pink Pegasus at his side, a last chortle escaping him.

Hay yeah, that had been worth it. Presteza, huh? He would remember that.

So caught up on the spectacle he was, that Inkbrand had almost missed Fluttershy's words to him, but they caught up in his brain as he raised a mild eyebrow down at the slight mare. "Calling for a partner for Winter Wrap-Up is rude, huh? I'll keep that in mind," he commented idly, in a tone of voice that suggested he would absolutely do no such thing. Really amazing, it really was, how someponies felt it their prerogative to try and impose their thoughts of acceptable behaviors, words, and attitudes on other ponies.

And that's what really bothered him when things like this happened. All these ponies surrounding him, undoubtedly blaming him for the entire thing…because he'd called somepony "babe"? Because he was assertive and confident, and didn't walk around on tippy-hooves everywhere he went? Or simply because he was the easiest target, with his tattoos and attitude? At least the ponies he'd hung with in Manehatten had been real, truthful - they judged a pony and made it no secret, didn't pretend to be all good and kindly while they were already making up their minds about you. Same way most of the ponies in Canterlot made it abundantly clear how they felt about you. Annoying as all hay, yes, but none of the false pretenses.

Not that it bothered Inkbrand on a personal level, not anymore. He'd long since gotten used to playing the villain for just about every unfavorable incident he was involved in. That's just the way life was - ponies were going to judge and be judged, no matter who was judging and who was being judged, and Inkbrand would never let anypony convince him otherwise. After all, he had experience on his side.

…Still.

Inkbrand had to admit to his surprise, hearing the yellow Pegasus stand up for him in her own backwards way. Even if she had considered him to be rude, at least she could recognize when a more upstanding citizen of Ponyville was being just as down and dirty as he was.

"Well sure babe, if you're offering," he finally settled on saying with a flirtatious tilt of his lips in response to her offer, more out of sheer force of habit than a real desire for the yellow Pegasus. Inkbrand didn't know Fluttershy on any level that could even come close to being seen as 'personal', but from everything he'd heard of the Pegasus and everything he'd seen from a distance, the mare was…well. Shy. Far too shy and timid for his tastes. Inkbrand got the funny image of her shattering into a million pieces if he ever tried to hold her with his hooves, for some reason. Assuming her words to have been an invitation for a private lesson, Inkbrand began trotting back to the dens he had been looking at before.

Vaguely, Inkbrand caught sight of the mare he'd been calling out to in the first place flicking her tail and shooting him an annoyed glance before turning her back, like she couldn't be bothered to give him a verbal response. Frighteningly reminiscent of a classic Canterlot pony. Just a few minutes earlier, the sight might have been enough for Inkbrand to go needle the mare, but with the image of a certain cream colored pony getting dragged away via lasso still fresh on his mind, the grey stallion only snickered and waved a sardonic hoof at her backside, before turning back to the dens he had been occupying before and plopping back down. Unsurprisingly, they were still silent.

"So," he started conversationally, resting his chin on one upturned hoof as the other beat a random rhythm into the ground, turning his sharp golden eyes onto the yellow Pegasus. "Here we are. Den. Animals. Still sleeping. Oh, and bell." Laying where it had been tossed aside moments before, Inkbrand swept the bell back into his mouth and gave it a few half-hearted shakes. Funny, how he'd been thinking not too long ago how hard it could be to shake a bell and wake up some animals. Apparently he was ringing it at the wrong angle, or something.

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"Well, I have an affinity for fire magic, and controlling it is pretty much my talent. I like to use my fire as pyrotechnics for concerts and such, as a side job when I've got free time after school or over the weekend. What is it that you do for a living?"

"I'm a travel writer." She said. "I enjoy documenting anything I might encounter while wandering Equestria so it seemed like an ideal occupation." She walked over to another den. "This is one of my motives for being here. Ponyville appeared to have the most fascinating Wrap Up tradition so I wanted to see it for myself."

Brooke rang the bell. "Come out, it's time to wake up. Spring is here."

A gopher crawled from the den, scratching it's head. "I'm sure you're pretty hungry." She said before pointing to Pyro. "He'll give you some food in just a moment."

Brooke glanced over her surroundings while Pyro tended to the gopher. A lot was happening over where the unicorn and tattooed stallion where quarreling. Fluttershy stepped in to break them up, but soon afterwards a brown middle aged mare threw a lasso around the unicorn and drug her towards the bear caves. A small chuckle escaped Brooke's muzzle. The image of a rapidly talking unicorn being drug away by another pony was quite an amusing sight.

Her eyes lingered on Fluttershy and the stallion for a moment. Everything seemed to have calmed down considerably. And for one reason or another, she found the tattooed stallion rather interesting. Perhaps it was because she was practically immune to getting upset or offended in social situations. But nonetheless, he seemed like quite an interesting pony to interact with.

Once Pyro was done with the gopher, she rung the bell at another den.

"Time to wake a-ACHOO!" A sudden sneeze caught her completely off guard. Almost immediately, two squirrels scrambled from the den and darted around the premises in a panic. They bounced off of everything like ricocheting bouncy balls.

"Oh dear." Brooke grabbed a basket of food and chased after one of the squirrels. "It's aright, It was just a sneeze!" As she fell into a full blown frolic, the squirrel flung itself right into her face, clinging to her hair like it's life depended on it.

With her vision completed blocked, Brooke began skidding to a halt, but when the squirrel leaped from her face, Brooke found she was looking straight at a tree. She slammed right into it and the impact knocked her backwards. When she regained enough awareness to look around, she noticed an upside-own view of Fluttershy and the tattooed stallion from earlier. She felt too disoriented to stand up right away so she instead remained as she was for now.

"Does anyone know how to calm panicked squirrels?"

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Pyro listened as Brooke spoke, saying she was a traveling writer and that was mostly why she was in Ponyville. He glanced over towards that tattooed stallion from earlier, but the team leader had stepped in to break it up. Hopefully it wouldn't come to physical fighting, he didn't want to hurt anypony right now. He looked away from them as Brooke drew a gopher out of the next den. Pyro set to feeding it as soon as Brooke moved away.

When he was done, he again glanced over towards the stallion, and caught sight of Pressy being dragged away by another mare. After seeing that she wasn't resisting the pull, Pressy's situation became comical to him. She was perfectly fine, it seemed, with being dragged along then. Pyro laughed as he watched her get dragged farther away. He brought his gaze back to Brooke as she sneezed in the middle of waking a couple squirrels, who both bolted away in a panic. Brooke began chasing them while carrying a basket of food.

Pyro began chasing down the other squirrel, not noticing Brooke's predicament. He was moving as quickly as he could forward, but that made changing direction more difficult for him. With every turn, he fell further and further behind. He was almost frustrated to the point of fencing in the squirrel with magic when he heard an impact. Turning towards the sound, he saw Brooke sprawled under a tree near the tattooed stallion and the team leader. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't stopped running when he turned his head, and he ended up tripping, sending him head over hooves with his momentum. He flew, flipping in the air, for a few feet before crashing to the ground on his back and skidding to a stop. He let out a groan as he lay there, his eyes closed and his sunglasses on the ground where he had landed.

"Well, that was fun." Pyro mumbled sarcastically to himself, as of yet not getting up.

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The little filly danced about in excitement, before calming down enough to ask "So umm...What exactly is your name miss?"

"Ah, silly me! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Snickerdoodle, like the cookie." the vanilla mare responded, lifting her wing to show off her cutie mark. "And what's your name? Are your parents helping out too?" She glanced around at the other ponies assembled, but none of them looked like they belonged with the little brown filly. Maybe they were on another team. Planting, most likely, since she was an earth pony.

Just then she heard the chittering of squirrels, and a mad scramble of hooves. She looked up in time to see the red-headed doe crash into a tree, and the flame-maned unicorn stallion tumble horn over hooves trying to make a tight turn, and failing. Snickerdoodle sighed at the spectacle. Nopony needed to ring bells anymore, all the commotion would wake up all the animals within a mile of here! "C'mon," she said to Apple Susie, herding her towards the burrows further away. "Let's go over here where it's quieter."

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"Well, that's kinda why I didn't participate in this event last year, but this is going to be my last full winter in Ponyville so I figured that I would at least give it a shot," she smiled at the brownish colored mare. "You can bet that it's even more difficult though when your entire field of specialized magic is based around the one thing that we are currently surrounded by. It makes resisting the temptation to use magic quite difficult," she added before the mare went back into serious mode. "Right bears, quiet." she smiled sheepishly as they began to close in on the cliffside. "Why am I getting the aching feeling that this is not going to go according to plan..." she mumbled quietly to herself. She didn't know why, but for some reason she didn't see disturbing a sleeping bear ending positively for anypony involved. Weren't bears usually angry when they get woken up? These thoughts definitely made sure that Ice stayed quiet because she definitely didn't want to be the one that woke the bear up. Giving it the fish to eat would be dangerous enough. After all, what if it decided that it wanted pony for breakfast instead of fish?

The other mare said that once she rang the bell, to send in the fish, and don't do anything stupid and they should be fine. That was all fine and dandy and all, but Ice Storm couldn't even begin to understand what a bear would think would be stupid and what isn't. She also doubted that if the bear thought that it was stupid that the bear would just simply facepaw at them. Nope, the bear would likely chase them down into a ravine, through a field of tumbling rocks that they would have to weave back and forth through, but not everypony would make it through, and somepony would have to go back to save the pony that didn't make it through and pull them out right as the bear got to them and made it out as the rest of the rocks fell into place to block the bear on the other side while the brown mare would chastise them for doing something that the bear would think is stupid. Or things could also go smoothly and the bear would just eat the fish. All the same, Ice just followed Pressy and basically copied what she did, waiting for the bell either to run or feed the bear, depending on what the bear had in mind.

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Fluttershy saw the apologetic look on Presteza's face after she delivered her lecture to the unicorn. But before Presteza could respond, a rope suddenly looped around her an hauled her away! Fluttershy jerked back in confusion, until she saw the cow pony at the other end of the rope. Well, that was one way to break up the argument... Fluttershy had seen Applejack doing something similar to Rainbow Dash a few times. Presteza shouted out a apology as she was dragged away. Awkwardly, Fluttershy shouted back, "Um, that's ok... I guess..." Several ponies moved off with Presteza and the cowpony, and she thought she heard them mention waking bears. She was tempted to stop them, but Bruce and the other bears were used to her presence, and the group didn't seem frightened. Hopefully they could take care of it together.

She turned back to the gray stallion with the tattoos. She was surprised to note that he was still sneering at the retreating unicorn. She was really starting to dislike this pony's attitude. But, she reminded herself, she was still the team leader. She had to remain professional, and, after all, he had volunteered to help. She took a deep breath, resolving to let the pony's attitude roll off her back, like water off of a duck's feathers.

She approached the den that the stallion had tried to work at before. Oddly, the dark clouds she had seen earlier seemed larger than they had been. The breeze seemed to be picking up too. It was strange, but she wasn't too concerned. It must be a system the weather team had missed somehow. They'd find it before the day was done, she was sure. "Now," she said, adopting what she hoped was a good 'teacher' tone. "Many of the animals might be timid and scared when they wake up. You just have to be kind and gentle." "She produced a bell from under her wing and rang it at the entrance. "It's OK, little ones," she called out, gently, "You can come out. Spring is almost here! You don't want to miss it, do you?" She stepped back as a pair of rabbits poked their noses out, one grey and one brown. "That's it!" she cooed at them. "Nothing will hurt you out here!"

Just at that moment, Brooke galloped past, and Fluttershy watched in shock as the doe ran right into a tree! The two bunnies, seeing this, retreated back into the burrow again. Fluttershy ran to the deer saying, "Oh my goodness! What happened??"

"Does anyone know how to calm panicked squirrels?"

Fluttershy looked at the doe in confusion, until she saw two little brown streaks racing in her direction. The unicorn that Brooke had been working with seemed to have had a crash of his own, but Fluttershy's eyes were focused on the squirrels. The two panicked creatures met her eyes... then stumbled to a stop, transfixed. Fluttershy then relaxed her expression and the squirrels reacted by dropping to the ground, panting. "Shh, it's ok, you two!" she told them. She reached back into the pocket of her vest, producing two acorns. "Here, you two eat these, and I'll be back to check on you, OK?" She then turned back to Brooke to help the doe back to her hooves.
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